This patent application concerns a transport system with rail-going vehicles or cabins, where the vehicles are directed by and run on along running rails. The rails are arranged into a track system that forms a continuous ring track, and where the stations for disembarking and embarking always are separate from the main track. This application describes both the track system as a whole, and the rails and vehicles as details in the transport system. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the tracks are installed on posts, and will therefore not require significant ground real estate. The stations can be designed to be integrated parts of buildings, preferably on higher floors. The transport system as a whole offers advantages of safety, and can be designed to be of little complexity, which offers advantages regarding costs for installation, maintenance and repair.
Introduction
For several years, the applicant has thought about transport systems which could deal with most of the significant communication problems in larger cities, in particular relating to getting around, pollution and noise. There have been performed studies, research and development within this area for more than 30 years, and firms such as Boeing, Ford, General Motors, Honeywell, Matra, MBB, Otis Elevator, Raytheon, and Siemens have been involved in large projects as illustrated by examples in FIG. 1. Research in the area of transportation has been performed at universities in Boston (Harvard and MIT), Minnesota, Seattle, Palo Alto (Stanford) and Gothenburg. Extensive evaluations have been performed for the cities of Gxc3xa4vle, Gothenburg and Stockholm, but all these projects have failed, in large degree because of lack of continuous engagement from public authorities, in spite of the prognosis""s predicting profitability even without subsidies. In particular, there was great interest in the USA in the early seventies, but the xe2x80x9cConventional Railxe2x80x9d-industry succeeded through political lobbying to stop the use of public funds on the development of new solutions. A present advantage of this early work is that most of the fundamental concept patents have long expired.
Work has been performed on Automated People Movers (hereafter called APM) since the sixties. Most of the approximately 100 installed systems are in the category Group Rapid Transit (hereafter called GRT), where automated vehicles go in a pre-determined route with a large number of passengers. Mini-GRT also goes in a pre-determined route, but only with 4-10 passengers. Personal Rapid Transit (hereafter called PRT) has off-line stations, where the vehicles pass all stations where they have no business. This allows non-stop transport with typically 2-6 people in each vehicle. For the cases of Mini-GRT and PRT, the low weight of vehicles makes it attractive cost-wise to elevate the track from ground level, which release real estate and allow avoiding conflict with ground-based traffic. Simultaneously, it is calculated that the total system cost for the same capacity is dramatically reduced by using PRT with respect to GRT, so that for a given amount significantly better coverage and increased number of stations is possible.
Elevated systems are not in use today, with the exception of some airports and in amusement parks, and only implemented as Mini-GRT. Previously the costs associated with computer systems were prohibitive for realising PRT, and less was known of light metals and composites. But a few years ago, the Chicago transportation authorities assigned Raytheon the task of building a prototype system and large sums of money have been committed. This system, called PRT2000, has already been demonstrated, but the community of practice agrees that it is built so costly and complex that it will not be possible to sell afterwards. But even though it is only designed to transport people, it is always advantageous that someone takes the lead and demonstrates to a sceptical world that someone believes that such a system will be both useful and possible to realise.
The system, according to the invention described in this application, is for simplicity called xe2x80x9cSkywayxe2x80x9d, as in Subway, Highway, Railway, etc. Introducing a new mode of transport, a system according to the invention Skyway, elevated from ground level, will be more affordable than all alternatives. The system according to the invention will be fully automatic, and will be able to transport both people and goods (in automated containers) at low cost and having low energy consumption. Apart from the unusual aesthetics, the system only to a limited degree affects the environment. The vehicles can be both privately and publicly owned, and need not be a public system. Previous projects have not failed exclusively because of failing technology, but also because of faults in concept and business model, as well as a lack of focus on public decision concepts.
The Skyway-system according to the invention is ideally suited for installation in existing city centres as it only requires limited real estate and will give limited disturbance to the existing patterns of traffic during installation, because of a large degree of prefabrication. As an example, related to the building of a completely new part of a city, for example at the geographically central area at Fornebu Airport (closing and released in 1998), a system can according to the invention be installed after erecting the skeletons of buildings. In addition, the system can be easily expanded, allowing expansion according to real needs rather than estimated needs.
By the preferred embodiment of a PRT transport system according to the invention, the stations 8 will in a simple way be integrated in the buildings (FIG. 2), and simultaneously the system will be affordable enough to provide extensive coverage. One can further enhance these synergies by using a PRT system as xe2x80x9chorizontal elevatorsxe2x80x9d. One can then conveniently go from one building to another in air-conditioned climate. This will integrate buildings over large ground areas. Elevating tracks above ground, using wall fasteners or posts provides increased opportunities for green areas and gives less conflict with other modes of transport. In a vehicle according to the invention there will be seats, but it will also give room to standing passengers, for bicycles, baby strollers and wheelchairs.
Aesthetically, transportation structures above ground represent for many people something new and thereby initially something negative, feelings to be taken quite seriously. During recent years, it has increasingly been acknowledged that the lack of accessibility within some cities has reached intolerable levels, and the costs of underground systems have become prohibitive. Further, there is increased focus on the exhaust gases from combustion engines and noise, and not the least on the consumption of energy from transportation itself. Energy consumption from land-based transport is to a large extent to be attributed to frequent starts and stops, and that the weight of physical safety features is high. A system where the vehicles do not stop between start and destination and thereby is subjected to fewer accelerations, and which also is designed so that the vehicles can not collide with each other, and where the vehicles have lower weight, will in total consume less energy. By electric operation one avoids local pollution and limits noise.
Installation-wise and development-wise, it may be right to design the system to operate in Mini-GRT mode in a simple network initially. Later, one can make the most used stations off-line, which will allow non-stop transport in PRT mode.
Known system concepts, known technology from the field.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,380,732 xe2x80x9cPleasure Railway Structurexe2x80x9d describe an amusement park vehicle with railway-type wheels with inner flange. The vehicles drive on two rails on crossties where each rail is put together by a flat rolling surface being higher than the inner flange of the wheel, a covering beam arranged horizontally and standing on its short cross-section side face, with its standing, longer cross-section, side face being taller than the diameter of the wear path/outward contact surface of the wheel, and an upper mounted covering horizontal rail arranged on top of the covering bar and being parallel with the roll path. Thus the rail described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,380,732 does not form an independently carrying structure, but is carried by the underlying crossties. The wheels of the vehicle and corresponding axle is mounted under the bottom floor of the vehicle and the vehicle does not utilise the height of the rails to lower the vehicle down towards the lower part of the rails and loose thereby the possibility to achieve a minimum cross-section profile of rails and vehicle, and thereby a more economic embodiment of the invention and better utilisation of space. This has probably not been a consideration since the purpose was a xe2x80x9cPleasure Railwayxe2x80x9d, in a kind of amusement park.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,426 uses the same rail principles as in U.S. Pat. No. 1,380,732, and makes it therefore impossible to drive if the rails are arranged directly on the ground.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,020,446 describe wheels with outer flanges. GB 1 354 638 xe2x80x9cGuided Transportation Vehiclexe2x80x9d (1974) describe a rail-guided ground based vehicle in a transportation system. The guiding wheel 24, arranged outside of the main wheels 14, force the vehicle to follow the vertical rails on the right and left side of the track. The guiding wheels arranged at the vehicle guiding mechanism 76, which is mounted above and extend outside of the guiding rail, rolls on the outside of the guiding rails 22. Here is similarly the wheels mounted with short axle distance inside wheel compartments in the vehicle, and not as a wide track configuration, where the wheels are running on rails on each side of the vehicle according to the preferred embodiment of the invention.
GB 1 511 910 xe2x80x9cImprovements in or relating to vehicular transportation systemsxe2x80x9d describes a guiding arrangement on vehicles. The guiding rail is arranged on the branching junctions along the track. The guiding arrangement is designed for pre-positioning and thereby latch onto the pre-selected right or left guiding rail as the vehicle reaches a junction where the vehicle has to choose one of two directions, right or left.
Known PRT systems are either based on the vehicles moving on rails on ground, or the vehicles moving on top of, on the side of, or under elevated track beams (FIG. 1). Common to all PRT systems is the need for a xe2x80x9cswitching-systemxe2x80x9d (junction guiding arrangement) which allow the tracks to split into two tracks, and for two tracks to join into one. Without this functionality the realisation of a network as shown in FIG. 3 with off-line stations be impossible. The elevated systems are to some degree derived from the metaphor of the xe2x80x9cMonorailxe2x80x9d, which is based on an along running support beam with tracks. An advantage with only one along running support beam is that it only to a limited degree appear visually intrusive, but the disadvantageous are numerous:
Standing on Tracks
The vehicle is balancing on top of a track beam, and requires many mechanisms to ensure it will not fall down. Raytheon""s system has first a large-diameter along running steel tube underneath, and then the tracks on top, on which the motorized under-carriage of the vehicle roll, with the passenger carriage on top. Even though only sitting passengers are permitted and only 1.5 m interior height, the whole structure measures approximately 3.5 m from bottom to top. Further, on-top systems are susceptible to snow and icing, and one risks colliding with people or animals on the tracks.
Hanging on the Side of Track Beams
The core idea of this arrangement is to permit vehicles to go on both sides of the same beam, thus limiting visual impact of the beam. However, torsion considerations require that support poles and track beams will have to be particularly rigid, and thereby expensive. But most seriously, the junction switch becomes quite complex and causes systems with active junctions to become quite expensive to build.
Ranging Under Beams
A vehicle hanging under a track beam is more exposed to possible damage from other vehicles travelling beneath it, and additionally, junctions will be more complex because the main suspension arrangement bars during for example a left turn in a junction will have to pass xe2x80x9ctroughxe2x80x9d the rails of the track going to the right. In strong winds, the vehicle will be exposed to great forces that can cause a pendulum type movement.
The purpose according to this invention is to maintain the advantages of the above described system concepts based on known technology from rail-going transport systems, preferably based on posts supporting track beams with rails, but simultaneously to avoid many of the disadvantages with known technologies for support and guidance of the vehicles.
The invention comprises a type system with ring-type transport for one transport direction, with track junctions connecting tracks on or above ground, consisting of pair-wise parallel running rails with fixed track width, with load-carrying vehicles with wheels, where the track above ground includes along running beams with an open track with height larger than the diameter of the wheels along the inner surfaces of the carrying beams, with rails arranged on a lower surface of the track, where the beams can be arranged on carrying posts or fixed to walls, and where the rails on flat ground is arranged on the ground.
The new and characteristic of the invention is:
active or controllable track junctions xe2x80x9cYxe2x80x9d comprising of a preferably straight main track section xe2x80x9cYxe2x80x9dR and a deviation track section xe2x80x9cYxe2x80x9dB to one of the sides of the direction of travel, either only to the right, or only to the left of the main track section xe2x80x9cYxe2x80x9dR
passive collecting track junctions xe2x80x9cxcexxe2x80x9d (in the direction of travel) comprising of a straight track section xe2x80x9cxcexxe2x80x9dR and a curved track section xe2x80x9cxcexxe2x80x9dB, arranged in such a way that vehicles when backing through a passive xe2x80x9cxcex-junctionxe2x80x9d under normal operations only follows the straight track section xe2x80x9cxcexxe2x80x9dR.
Other characteristics of this invention are according to the dependent claim, and according to the following Figure description and the detailed description of the system components.